Manufacturers have an interest in protecting the integrity and purity of their products that are fabricated from quality components and may be subject to mixing or dilution with less expensive, lower quality materials. Such adulteration and even outright counterfeit substitution of process feed-stocks and production materials, received from suppliers to be processed by the manufacturers, often escapes detection until after the products are manufactured.
Counterfeiting and blending of high-end products in particular, with cheaper material, has become a major liability problem for many companies. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) reported that in 2008, counterfeited goods resulted in a loss of $650 billion in revenues and 2.5 million jobs. The ICC projected that the loss in revenues would exceed $1.7 trillion in 2015, which is equivalent to 2% of the world economy. In addition to revenue losses, a variety of counterfeit products have been implicated in serious health and safety issues.